


In Plain Sight

by BlueFlashbang



Category: Hilda (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Missing Persons, Post-Canon, Spells & Enchantments, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:02:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28722543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueFlashbang/pseuds/BlueFlashbang
Summary: Frida attempts to use a newly learned spell to find Hilda after she suddenly disappears for the second time in a row.
Relationships: David & Frida (Hilda), Frida & Hilda (Hilda), Frida/Hilda (Hilda)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 71





	In Plain Sight

**Author's Note:**

> The fic takes place after The Stone Forest in season 2 and during The Mountain King comic, and it's basically what I envisioned Frida and David would do in the comic's story-line since they aren't major characters in the comics. 
> 
> I really just wrote this on a whim to be honest. And as always, hope you enjoy this!

Barely a day went by after Hilda and her mom were found escaping the Stone Forest. Yet seemingly overnight, Hilda had vanished from her home once again. Twig was still in the apartment, and Johanna was safe and sound along with Tontu and Alfur. But to everyone’s dismay, it was only the blue-haired adventurer who disappeared, and left in her place was a humanized troll child to give a hint as to where she could have gone. 

Feeling endlessly inquisitive, Frida asked David to come over to her place as they devised a plan to locate their friend, hoping to find out whether or not she was in mortal danger. The two were in Frida’s bedroom, sitting still on the floor with miscellaneous items surrounding them. 

“So, you plan on using magic to find Hilda this time?” David asked. 

“That’s correct.” Frida responded, skimming through long paragraphs of a manual she borrowed from Kaisa and Tildy. “We’ll be in even more trouble if we venture out of the wall during nightfall, especially if we get caught by the Safety Patrol. So we’re taking the secure route to look for Hilda first.” 

“But why couldn’t we have done this before?!” 

“Because last time, I was having trouble practicing another spell,” Frida looked up from her book, “and I hadn’t learned anything else that was useful in finding her. Not until tonight at least.” 

As the night breezed in, a whole week had officially gone by since Hilda vanished. During the time spent over her disappearance, Frida continued with her private witch-training while her best friend remained all she could think about. Even for Hilda, there was no way that she could possibly be in the mood to go on a reckless undertaking, not after her and Johanna’s experience running away from trolls, and let alone one where she felt like heading out by herself. It was hard not to overthink about her safety, hence her anxieties became evident through the constant fumbling of a transformation spell she was being taught. Her frown and heart-struck eyes lingered on her complexion, followed by continual groaning whenever she failed to focus. 

Tildy was quick to realize the troubles of her apprentice. She discerned Frida’s melancholy as one when a witch loses their closeness to a familiar. So without a moment too soon, the arch-sorceress decided to teach her a new incantation that further linked herself with Frida’s familiar, and one where neither an excess of time, patience and power was needed. 

Going back to the present, a small mat was placed in-between Frida and David. Frida put aside her book and delved her hand inside a pouch of pollen, pinching some of the substance little-by-little and sprinkled them into a perfect circle on the mat. Next, she gathered four sodalite rocks and angled them around the pollen ring. The preparation to recite this new enchantment seemed like any other setup that Frida had previously done for more intricate spells, only that the witch-in-training appeared to be a lot swift in laying everything out. 

“You seem pretty confident that this spell will work.” David said, remembering the time Frida turned Erik Ahlberg into a bug unintentionally. 

“It has to.” Frida asserted. “Unlike my previous spells, this one involves trying it on someone I’ve been close with before I even trained to become a witch, and that should give me enough power to make this spell work. That’s what Tildy said to me anyway, and I believe it.” 

When Frida stopped glancing through her items, David instinctively reached for a backpack and dug through its contents. 

“Did you find the last thing that we need?” Frida inquired, offering her hand and waited to receive something.

David nodded. “It’s one of the things I see Hilda enjoy in our camping trips, so I thought it would qualify.” he brought out a personal possession from Hilda’s bedroom when he visited the apartment earlier in the day. Well, more like broke in with the help of his nisse. 

It was a book written by Hilda’ favorite author, _FORESTS AND THEIR UNFRIENDLY OCCUPANTS_ by Emil Gammelplassen, and David relinquished it to Frida so she could situate the novel in the center of the pollen circle. 

“Now, with the item associated with my familiar, the spell I learned will have my eyes become theirs.”

“What does that mean exactly?” David asked bewildered. 

“It means I will be able to see what Hilda is seeing, and then I can get an idea as to where she is.” Frida replied. “It won’t last that long, though, so hopefully she isn’t anywhere too in-the-dark.” 

She took a deep breath and picked up her wand— the same shaft of a boat’s steering wheel that Hilda gave her all those months ago. Frida enveloped it with both hands and centered it around her chest with the tip pointing upwards. As she nodded and closed her eyes, her expression was more serious than ever. The moment of truth came as she whispered her new spell.

**_O bekant arbyuda vini..._**  


**_O bekant arbyuda vini...  
_ **

**_O bekant arbyuda vini…_ **

Each recital of the spell grew louder until the pollen gleamed like a lantern. The four sodalite rocks also glinted with traversing blue mist within their surfaces, and together with the pollen they emitted a deep whirring sound. David observed the incantation with his posture raised and eyes opening up in astonishment. He half expected the room to suddenly blow up by an extreme gust of wind, even sensing falsely that a draft was brewing from beneath the ground. But as Frida recited the spell with more vigor for a final time, both the pollen and stones regressed to their natural image from before. 

The room became uncomfortably silent. Frida was stuck to her position, and David hung around trying to resist his urge in asking what will happen next. 

Suddenly, the inside of Frida’s head felt like it was spinning. Her jaw dropped and her eyes opened, revealing her pupils to be nearly heart-shaped and glowing a rose gold tinge, startling the boy in front of her. Frida did not see herself back in her room, but rather a hazy vision of being dashed down a mountain. To her surprise, even the sound of a girl muttering in fear could be heard. Frida could not doubt it; she was now sharing Hilda’s vision. 

“She’s outside.” Frida spoke. “Hilda, can you hear me?” 

Her best friend continued to run, not even stopping to call for Frida’s name to acknowledge her. It was worth a try though.

Hilda ran deeper and deeper into the wilderness, gasping quickly and repeatedly until she reached the base of the mountain. Secluded in its shadow, she looked back and caught a glimpse of a bellowing creature that hollered her name in the distance, then she hid herself by prowling through the bushes nearby. She turned again to see an opening that gapped between the ground and the mountain itself; a large, triangular cave that seemed to have been formed ages ago. Whether it led back into the Stone Forest or to some place new, it was her next route to survival and therefore sprinted towards the opening. 

Trifling multi-legged vermin and cobwebs were scattered around the ridges of the cave, chilliness was all but absent inside. Her back was against the jagged wall as she peered from behind the corners. No longer did it seem as though she was being pursued, and she took another moment to catch her breath as many times as she could. 

“I want to go home.” she cried. 

Frida’s heart sank. She had never seen nor heard her friend so panicked and distraught before, and all she could do was watch instead of hurrying to comfort her. But something was even more off about Hilda. Perhaps it was the lack of light in the evening setting, but Frida swore that her arms and legs were as pale as a corpse. 

On the spur of the moment, Hilda turned to see what lies beyond the cave. She got up and ambled towards a set of rocks which appeared to be reflective. The closer she got, the clearer her physique was shown on the rocks. 

Her long blue hair had tinged to a much grayer shade, and her nose protracted like the pole of a birdhouse. But most distressing of all, her body was entirely made of stone; not a single trace of her humanity was to be seen. As Hilda watched a teardrop cascade on her cheek, Frida mimicked the distrait frown of her friend as they both gazed on the mirror. 

“Why can’t I be changed back?!” Hilda exclaimed to her reflection angrily. “This is not at all how I wanted to move back to the wilderness! I do not want to be a troll!” 

Her hand clenched into a fist and drew it backwards. Then, she forced it swiftly onto the rock until it had shattered, causing cracks and multiple reflections of a resentful Hilda to form. Immediately after the punch, Frida’s shared vision with Hilda grew progressively far-sighted until everything was merely a blurred spec. Her pupils no longer glowed and were shaped back to normal. And as the spell wore off, she shrieked timorously and knocked back on the floor. 

David slithered around the mat and rushed to his friend. “Frida, what happened?” he asked frantically, picking her back up. 

“I know where she is, kind of.” Frida stammered. “She’s out of the wall again, in a cave somewhere near the mountains for now but…” the longer she spoke, the closer she came to whimpering. 

“It was so strange.” she continued. “It’s not possible but...I know I saw it. I even heard it. But why and how is she...did she get cursed or...UGH!” 

She gripped her hair tight as she struggled to make sense of what she saw. “I don’t understand. How on earth did she become a troll?!” she breaks into tears from repressing her speech, not wanting the word “troll” to be overheard outside the room.

“Hilda became a what?!” David exclaimed. 

More questions raised in Frida and David’s mind. Frida wished that she could have halted whoever, or whatever turned Hilda into a stone variant of herself. She wanted to be with her in the cave to protect her, and she hoped the spell could have done more than just see what a familiar saw. None of this was how she expected to find her. Everything felt better before she tried helping herself with the spell. 

She sighed arduously. “Our best friend is a troll, David.” she snivelled, embracing the brunette tightly. In turn, David wrapped his arm around Frida and patted her back. He felt like crying too, feeling crushed in perhaps more ways than one, but he homed in on his friend’s dejection first and foremost as silence filled the air for a good long minute. 

Frida then lets go of her grasp and rubbed her palms on her face. There was not enough time to feel frightened about having her expectations subverted. Her plan had been to know where and if Hilda was in danger, and all the boxes were checked.

“We need to tell Hilda’s mum where she is.” Frida said. “In case she runs off with Tontu and Twig to look for her again tomorrow, we have to tell her what I saw before she does.” 

“Then let’s move.”


End file.
